Ron Gilbert’s told us all about The Cave. Ron Gilbert’s told us about what he might do after The Cave. The Cave’s told us about The Cave. So honestly, what’s even left? Well, logical progression would suggest that The Cave should now tell us about Ron Gilbert, and perhaps it will - but, you know, symbolically and stuff. First, though, we’ll need to be able to play The Cave (instead of just say “The Cave” way too many times in one post), and that requires it to be safely under our roofs, basking in the dripping liquids of our own neglect-borne ceiling stalactites. Fortunately, it’ll be doing exactly that in just one week.

Yep, that launch trailer sure was the two previous character trailers glued together. But I actually don’t mind so much, given that The Cave – driven by character arcs and an often shocking (just wait until you reach the end of the Hillbilly’s level) sense of humor – is probably best enjoyed with only a small amount of foreknowledge, if any.

I’m hopeful that it’ll be quite the thing, too. I mean, obviously, being declared the spiritual successor to Maniac Mansion gives you some pretty sizable sneakers to fill, but Gilbert also claims this idea’s been fluttering around in his mindcaverns for more than two decades. That’s a lot of time to grow and change and consider the nature of the universe and whatnot, so I’m fairly excited to see how that translates into game form.

It’ll be out on January 23rd for $14.99/£9.99. That’s kind of a steal for two decades of Gilbertian wisdom, huh? So then, who’s taking the plunge?

I don’t care much about quantity but rather about quality
of course, doesnt mean the game should be extremely short (that would be disappointing)
but rather be short and live to the expectations in terms of gameplay/history/appeal

on the other hand as I understood, every characther has a different story so there should be a good amount of replayability

I’ve beat some games in one sitting and felt extremely satisfied and that I got my money’s worth.

It’s way more common for games to artificially prolong themselves with stupid quests and repetition for the sake of length alone. I don’t know if developers and designers feel it’s not worth it to implement a game mechanic unless it’s used two hundred times in the game, or if majority of the people actually find the “collect 28 items” or “kill 18 enemies” essential parts of a game.

Of course there’s exceptions, long games that manage to keep a good flow and never become too repetitive, but I’d say they are very rare beasts.

I’ll rather pay 15$ for 2 hours of pure joy, than 60$ for two hundred hours of something to kill time on and be slightly entertained from time to time.

Pre-ordered it on Steam, I am glad it has a concrete date now. There’s almost zero hype or coverage though, which I find a bit surprising. RPS must be the site where I’ve read about it the most, but even here there usually aren’t many comments.

It is quite odd – first point and click adventure by Schaefer since Full Throttle (I think) gets millions in Kickstarter funding. First (adult) point and click adventure by Ron Gilbert since Monkey Island 2 coming out from the same company and barely a whisper.